DIDN'T KNOW DOC WAS ALSO A MECHANIC
There will be baseball tonight at Citizens Bank Park.
Or not.
It's all weather permitting, of course. But the last time I checked weather.com, there's only a 20 percent chance of rain, so I'm guessing Game 5 of the World Series between the Phillies and Rays will be played. Of course, it also will be 38 degrees outside, so it will be freeeeeeezing. But the cold is the least of the Phillies' concerns right now. They need to make sure they're refocused. These guys were upset leaving the ballpark Monday. Have they put those frustrations behind them?
We'll see.
Phil Sheridan reminds everybody that this is still the Phillies' series to win: "Imagine if someone came to the Phillies in March and offered this proposition: You can play 31/2 innings, with four times at bat to the opponent's three times, to win the World Series. And if you somehow manage to lose that shortened game, you get two more full games. Win just one of those and you're the champs. Think the Phillies would have taken that? Every team in baseball would take that."
He also says enough with the only-in-Philadelphia talk:
"If the Phillies fail to win the 2008 World Series, it won't be because the fates are aligned against them. It won't be because it snowed before Halloween or because Bud Selig's glasses fogged up during the fifth inning of Game 5a or because William Penn is still honked about One Liberty Place. No, it will be because Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell couldn't score one more run than the Tampa Bay Rays with three extra outs to work with.
"These things aren't supernatural. The Eagles didn't lose their 1988 playoff game in Chicago because of the sudden arrival of thick, impenetrable fog. They lost because they had two touchdowns called back for penalties they committed in plain sight, and because tight end Keith Jackson, uncovered in the end zone, dropped a touchdown pass. The Eagles were inside the Chicago 20-yard line nine times and failed to score a touchdown.
"We all remember the fog better than the details, and years from now we'll remember the first World Series game ever to be suspended better than we'll remember Shane Victorino's two-run single in the first inning."
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So who's going to pitch? Who's going to hit? Neither manager is saying, but I took a crack at what might happen when play resumes in the bottom of the sixth inning.
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Jim Salisbury takes a trip to the firing range, where Brett Myers spent his unexpected day off.
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Bob Ford pretty much crushes Selig, which is a popular pastime around here these days.
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Bill Lyon writes about what could have been and what is.
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John Gonzalez opens the mail bag and finds that fans think God hates the Phillies. Gonzalez, Ford and Sheridan talk more about this mess.
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So you know that light rain baseball said its three weather services called for? They also predicted the rain would pick up around 10 p.m., which it did. Meteorologists aren't surprised that there's bad weather right now. Because, you know, it's late October!
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More people in Philly are watching the World Series than people in Tampa Bay. ... The Rays love Wilmington! Quick Wilmington, get your tourism brochures updated! ... Game 5 tickets remain an expensive ticket.
Bob Brookover and Matt Gelb team up for their third straight season covering the Phillies for the Inquirer and philly.com.
This is Brookover’s second stint writing about the Phillies, having joined the coverage team after seven years as an Eagles beat writer. Brookover was hired by The Inquirer in 2000 as the Phillies beat writer after spending 13 years writing about the team for two suburban newspapers. While on the Eagles beat, Brookover, who had covered just two winning Phillies teams in 15 seasons, saw the Phillies move into a cash-cow new ballpark and begin playing a brand of the game he found unrecognizable. Follow him on Twitter here.
Gelb is in his third season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He has also covered baseball at The Star-Ledger and Cape Cod Times. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.
To submit a question for Matt Gelb's Phillies mailbag, click here.
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